hold me fast and fear me not
by marymin
Summary: Makeouts after the events of the fifth novel. Shameless SetoKano.


When they were about five minutes away from the apartment, Takane screeched to a halt, her sneakers skidding on the darkened pavement. "Hey, you two go ahead. I've got some stuff to do first."

Seto opened his mouth to ask how she expected them to prove she was back, but she'd already turned on her heel and dashed off down a side alley, leaving he and Kano alone in the street. He peered after her, and then jumped in surprise as Kano's fingers closed around the fabric of his sleeve.

Kano looked way better now, at least compared to around an hour ago when he'd been crouched in the street with tears running down his face. There were no trace of those tears now, and though it was hard to see in the yellow streetlight, his eyes didn't appear to be rimmed in red at all. Despite that, his blinking was just a little too fast, and Seto thought he must be employing the usual mask full-force right now.

Tugging at his sleeve again, Kano pantomimed a childish pout. "Let's go hoooome," he whined, and Seto laughed, surprised. He'd have thought Kano would want to take the long way home, and delay explanations just a little longer. Maybe he was finally figuring out what a relief it was to get such things off his chest. In that case, good for him.

"Yeah, let's go," he agreed, taking Kano's wrist to transfer his grasp from his sleeve to his hand, the other boy's cold fingers folding neatly into his wide palm.

Kano was quiet the whole way home, bizarrely so. It seemed like he never stopped his chatter at any other time, and though he offered conversation once or twice on the way, he eventually fell silent as they neared the apartment.

Seto thought about offering to go in first, to take the brunt of Kido's wrath- though it'd surely be nothing compared to the catastrophe once Kano explained everything- but when he grasped the doorknob, it was locked. "They must not be home," he wondered aloud, fishing out his key. Kano visibly relaxed, a sigh and then a slightly wild laugh escaping him.

"Ahhh, it's late! I wonder what those guys could be up to!" he said with a careless shrug.

It was pretty odd for no one at all to be home, and Seto had to fumble for the light switch, unused to coming home to a dark apartment. Kano trailed him inside, and without thinking kicked the door shut behind them, plunging the two of them into darkness.

"It should be here," Seto mumbled, feeling at the wall. His foot caught something flat like a book and it slid sideways under him, and he sat down hard, his shoulder hitting the wall. He lost track of Kano in the pitch black shadows, at least until the other's hands brushed his shoulders and knees.

"Man, what was that? You scared me!" Kano laughed, but his voice was pitched just a little too high, and one of his cackles caught oddly in his throat.

Confused, Seto reached up for him, his thumb brushing skin, eyelashes, something wet. "Kano, are you...?"

Before he could ask if he was crying, or if he'd ever really stopped, Kano kissed him hard, all teeth and tongue and fumbling hands in the darkness. Seto tried to hold onto him, to push him away or pull him closer or just tell him it was okay, but the other boy was shifting and moving in his arms, knocking his hands away and grasping his wrists.

Seto's back hit the wall, and he hadn't realized he'd moved backwards, but Kano seemed to settle down just a little, becoming an identifiable form kneeling between Seto's legs, his hand and thumb fit alongside Seto's neck and jaw. Kano kissed him desperately, his mouth slanting and shifting against Seto's, too frantic and hopeless to concentrate on anything else.

Almost dazed, Seto lifted his hands again, finding Kano's torso and shoulders and hips, the mental map of the other boy falling into place inside his head. Kano was trembling beneath his touch, his shaking and shivering only too clear through the thin fabric of his shirt.

He cupped a hand at Kano's hip, the rough jean texture and the thick leather of his belt grounding him, the last piece of the puzzle for his mind to construct the image of Kano kneeling over him. It wasn't a bad mental image at all.

Shaking off the haze of confusion, Seto tilted his head up towards him and began to respond in kind, his motions more deliberate, less frenzied. Kano surged and seethed in his arms like a tidal wave but all Seto could do was hold him close and kiss him painfully slow, convincing him in any possible way that they still loved him.

His tongue slid against Kano's lips and the other boy pressed closer, a desperate little noise in the back of his throat. After a few seconds, Kano sagged in his arms, pulling away and pressing his face to the hollow of Seto's neck instead. His cheeks were wet and cold against Seto's skin and he squirmed, but the worst seemed to be over now. Seto gave a breathless laugh, patting his thin back and pulling him into a tighter hug.

The door flew open.

"Yeah, I went to go get more food, but they'd closed the- what are you doing?"

Takane squinted at them from the doorway, and Seto thanked the darkness of the room for hiding his sudden blush as he cleared his throat, sitting up straight. Kano refused to be peeled off of him, however, only burying his face against Seto's neck further.

"I couldn't find the light switch," he explained, though that didn't really explain anything at all, and Takane's eyes narrowed at him in suspicion.

There really was no way to explain something like this.


End file.
